R380 MANUAL GEARBOX - WATER IN OIL - IS THERE A BREATHER??

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lrjohn

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Anyone got any ideas how water might have got into my Discovery 2 R380 manual gearbox?

I drained the gearbox today and milky fluid came out which incidentally looked exactly the same as the guy on the YouTube video, link below, who waded way too deep in water went in the top of the gearbox through the gearstick area. This vehicle is new to me but I am fairly convinced it has never been waded that deep by the condition of the carpets and absolute lack of corrosion or rot in the floor and boot area – it’s as clean as a whistle.

I have been trying to find how water could have got in and it has been mentioned that there may be a breather on this gearbox which is either dislodged or got somehow underwater – searching the net there are very confusing opinions as to whether this gearbox has a breather in the first place.

There must have been quite a bit of water got in at some point as when I removed the filler plug to check it would come out before removing the drain plug it drained off a lot of fluid.

So my question is anybody got any ideas as to how water would have got in and is there a breather pipe I need to look out for?

 
lrjohn said:
Anyone got any ideas how water might have got into my Discovery 2 R380 manual gearbox?

I drained the gearbox today and milky fluid came out which incidentally looked exactly the same as the guy on the YouTube video, link below, who waded way too deep in water went in the top of the gearbox through the gearstick area. This vehicle is new to me but I am fairly convinced it has never been waded that deep by the condition of the carpets and absolute lack of corrosion or rot in the floor and boot area – it’s as clean as a whistle.

I have been trying to find how water could have got in and it has been mentioned that there may be a breather on this gearbox which is either dislodged or got somehow underwater – searching the net there are very confusing opinions as to whether this gearbox has a breather in the first place.

There must have been quite a bit of water got in at some point as when I removed the filler plug to check it would come out before removing the drain plug it drained off a lot of fluid.

So my question is anybody got any ideas as to how water would have got in and is there a breather pipe I need to look out for?

Click to expand...



9.10 proper impressive!
They even mayod the pas reservoir.

I assume they had no high level breathers?
 
Defender91 said:
Check the gaiter on the selector housing, mine had split and had exactly the same problem.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for tipping me off to this, as you can see the gaiter is split and judging by the rust underneath it must have been letting in water for some time.
The split would be impossible to see from underneath so removing the centre console and cover plate reveals all!

upload_2022-9-26_15-37-40.jpeg
 
Probably never had an oil change in its life, and built up water content through condensation, you don’t see much water to change oil to mayo
 
sierrafery said:
IMO you should flush that gearbox before filling it with new oil
Click to expand...

I agree and have been looking online for a way to do that, most of the online info relates to auto transmissions. I did think of removing the gearlever cover plate and blitzing it with WD40 spray as that is a surfactant which would go right underneath any water and simply make it drain to the bottom of the gearbox where hopefully run out or try to suck it out with vacuum.

The only alternative seems to be as is already suggested fill it with Dextron use it for a while then drain it again. However, this vehicle doesn’t get a lot of use may take some while to get any miles on it before flushing. No easy route I think!
 
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